Memories Reborn
by Dedwyre
Summary: Here's my Wolfsbane story. The original events of this story take place in New Mutants issue #60-61. Rahne relives the day Doug Ramsey died, and tries to prevent it.


  
"Rahne? Rahne, are you okay?" a voice called from the darkness to Rahne Sinclair. She couldn't tell where she was. Everything was too dark to decipher. But that voice-the one that was calling to her-seemed oddly familiar.  
Suddenly, the lights in Rahne's head came on, and her surroundings came into focus. She was in some type of large structure. The floor was dirty, and she found that it was made of stones and dirt. Some of the walls were metal, but others were rocky and naturally created. There were machines and some windows that showed into other rooms.   
"You all right?" the voice asked Rahne again. She turned to look and was surprised to see Dani Moonstar looking at her. "You looked like you were out of it for a moment, Rahne."  
"Dani?" Rahne couldn't get her thoughts together. The last thing she remembered was that she'd been lying in bed, trying to get to sleep. Now, she was in a cave with Dani Moonstar, one of her old friends. She and Dani had been in Professor Xavier's New Mutants team together. "Dani, what are you doing here?"  
"Same thing you are," Dani said. "Sitting on the floor, thinking of a way to escape, and listening to this mad man babble!"  
"Escape?" Rahne looked down. She hadn't noticed before, but her hands had been shackled, and she had a heavy metal collar around her neck. But what shocked her even more was that she was wearing her old costume...the one she'd worn when she was in the New Mutants! And her hair...it was short, like it had been for a long time before she'd gotten it to grow. "Oh my gosh!" she said. "What's going on? Why am I here?"   
Rahne looked around, hoping to find an answer, but instead saw the rest of the original New Mutants team in shackles like she was! There was Sam Guthrie, who'd been named Cannonball, cuffed, collared, and stuck in a net! And on the other side of Dani was Illyana, aka Magik, her old friend who had the power to teleport to different parts on earth-and in the demon realm! She appeared to have been sedated. And next to her was...Doug! Douglas Ramsey! But...he was dead...wasn't he? He'd been killed...back when Rahne was with the New Mutants...fighting the Ani-mator...in the same situation she was in right now!  
"My Lord," Rahne whispered to herself. "I...I'm back! I'm somehow back with the New Mutants...the day Doug died! I must be dreaming..." But she knew she wasn't. She could feel the cold, hard floor, and the weight of her shackles. She could smell the stench of the Ani-mates...and their creator.  
"You will never be men," the Ani-mator was screaming to his creatures, particularly the one he held by the chin. "Never be given clothing...have a name! I shall destroy you! I shall destroy you all!" He held Bird-Brain, the New Mutants' adopted half-human, half-bird member. They'd found him on an icy island, taught him to speak, and made him a member. He'd led them back here to where he'd been created by the insane Ani-mator. He'd wanted to help his fellow Ani-mate friends escape so they wouldn't have to be captors of their creator, but the Mutants and Bird-Boy had been caught.  
"You don't deserve a name!" the Ani-mator screamed at Bird-Brain. "Names are for men...brave men! You are a coward! You fled the testing! Scared it would kill you, weren't you? Hee hee! I gave you brains, I'll say that for me! You know when to fear!" Bird-Brain was the kind of creature that would scare a normal human witless, but Rahne had always thought he was rather pretty, with his blue and white feathers and yellow skin. He almost had a beak, but it looked like a lengthened jaw on a human. He had large bird-like hands and feet, and very long arms that hindered his wearing clothes.  
The Ani-mator was the exact opposite of Bird-Brain. He was a grotesque little man who resembled a malnourished, hairless ape with glasses and bloodshot eyes. He wore a leopard skin outfit that he'd obviously made himself with his bare hands, which were claw-like because of lack of hygiene. He had the top half of a leopard skull on his head like a crown.  
"You know the law!" he continued. "No Strangers!"-He was talking about Rahne and her friends-"Not a one! Ever-on my island! Kill the strangers! That is the law! But you welcomed them!"  
"Fri-AWK-ends!" that was Bird-Brain's way of saying "friends". His speech wasn't perfect, but, with Doug's language translating ability (which was his only power), Rahne and he had taught Bird-Brain how to speak and understand English.  
"Silence!" the Ani-mator slammed both fists onto Bird-Brain's head, sending him down. "Animals have no friends!"  
Maybe, Rahne thought, maybe this is a Danger Room sequence...maybe Kitty or Douglock wanted to play a joke one me. No, they wouldn't be that cruel, would they? Rahne still couldn't find an explanation for what she was seeing. It had been years since this had happened! Why was it happening again?  
"That madman ain't bluffin'!" Sam said from next to Rahne. "I gotta try an' stop him 'fore he kills 'em all!" Sam made his futile attempt to use his human-missile powers and fly with the net and shackles still on him.  
"Sam! Wait! Don't go blasting off half-cocked!" Dani made her unintended joke. Rahne remembered it all vividly now. She knew that the big Ani-mate guard would catch Sam and toss him back.   
"Hey! Maybe I can scare him into releasing us!" Dani said. She had the power to project hologram-like images straight from other people's minds. She used it to project the Ani-mator's greatest fear.  
"Commander Hodge!" the Ani-mator turned and saw the image of his boss, the leader of the mutant hating Right, Cameron Hodge. Back then, none of the New Mutants had known who Hodge was. Later in her life, however, Rahne had learned how evil he really was. She cringed at the sight of him, even though it was just a picture.  
The Ani-mator started ranting off excuses to the fake Hodge about how he was still fulfilling Hodge's orders. An Ani-mate stepped through the image, and the Ani-mator knew immediately that Dani was tricking him.   
"Illusion!" the mad scientist yelled into Dani's face. "You know not what you're dealing with!"  
"Sure we do," Dani replied. "A mad, Pavlovian Frankenstein!"  
"Fah! You know nothing...are nothing! Mutants! Not even human!" He ranted on about how nature had given the mutants inhuman powers, and how chance had given them to him. "You mutants know nothing of curiosity, of the joy of discovery...oh, precious joy...of creation...in which you will play your humble part-as participants...progenitors if you will...of my slave race!" Just like all the other humans at that time, he thought that mutants were scum. He claimed he would deliver humanity from drudgery.  
The Ani-mator ordered his created subjects to carry the New Mutants to his laboratory. He allowed Bird-Brain to be brought along so he could see what his disobedience cost him.   
Rahne soon remembered that she'd said something to Doug while they were being carried away. She'd gotten an idea a moment before. Now that she had somehow been given a second chance, maybe she could save the New Mutants from this evil place this time. She decided to try and "replay her role".  
She made the comment she had made the first time. "'Tis odd, Doug. The Ani-mator actually sounds like he thinks he's doing something good!" She was surprised she could remember that.  
Doug replied the way he had last time. "Yeah, he does, doesn't he? I read somewhere that Nazi torturers had compartmentalized minds, too. Even though they acted evil, they didn't see themselves that way. It's a kind of perceptual madness, I guess, that lets the Ani-mator think he's accomplishing something positive...through his animal lust for blood and destruction."  
Listen to him, Rahne thought. He sounds so intelligent. Just like I remember him. Oh, I hope I can save him this time! Rahne had always told herself that, given the second chance, she would've saved Doug from death. Now, she had actually been given it.  
The monsters put them down in the lab. Illyana was still sedated, but she was almost coming too. A hairy, cat-like creature with a black mask and a large green lizard grunted strange words to her. Last time she'd asked Doug what he said. She decided to again.  
"Doug, they're talking to me, aren't they? What are they saying?"  
"They want to know if you're the one who turns into the animal called Wolfsbane...and...Shut up! Shut your filthy mouths!" The cat-thing hit Dough in the face, causing him to bleed from the mouth. Just like last time, Rahne became angry. She changed to her wolf form and tried to attack the beasts, but her shackles prevented her from doing any good. The cat-thing grabbed her and held her down. Then it called her a "like creature". Bird-Brain had called her that once, because she was part-animal like the Ani-mates. She just wasn't under evil influence.   
The beasts picked them back up and put them into big glass tubes. Illyana was gassed again so she couldn't use her powers to escape.   
From the tube next to hers, Doug called to Rahne. "Rahne...listen...in your wolf form you're the strongest of us! Switch to it! Test the glass and..."  
"No, I can't...it won't help. It's too strong." Rahne had claimed that she never wanted to use her wolf powers again the last time, because they gave her evil thoughts. She still knew the glass wouldn't break.  
"These batches of Ani-mates are obsolete...boring! They have no powers!" The lab was full of jars of newly developing animates. The Ani-mator ordered the other Ani-mates to destroy them. He then killed the bird-like Ani mate on his shoulder for mimicking him and hit Bird-Brain for speaking. Rahne was still confused about why the Ani-mates obeyed their wicked master, even though they outnumbered him.   
"Why do they obey him, Doug?" she asked. She was beginning to "get in" to her role, like an actor would sometimes do. But this wasn't a play. This was real!   
"I dunno, Rahne," Dough replied. "Maybe their too scared...or maybe they like it!" Rahne then felt the horrible feeling that she was like the monsters. It was the same feeling she'd had before. Rahne had always been the gullible type, and people around her could usually influence her easily. She was now becoming very close to believing that this was the first time she'd been in the situation, and thus began having the same type of thoughts as she had had the first time around.  
"I'm just like them," she said with watery eyes. She shifted to her half-wolf form. "This makes me like them...but I can't let those poor creatures die. Not without using my whole strength to save them!" She clawed at the glass, but it was no use. It was just as strong as it had been.   
"Rahne, listen!" Doug said, pushing against the glass in his cage. "I'm sorry for what I said earlier! About animal lust! I didn't mean you! Don't be ashamed of having an animal form. Bird-Brain's half human, and he's great, isn't he? As good as any human. Better than some! And your power's really useful. All I can do is decipher languages. At least you can do something. I feel pretty helpless...especially at times like this."   
Doug had always felt that he was useless with his power. But Rahne never had. In the other tubes, Dani and Sam talked about the Ani-mator's boss, Hodge, while Illyana kept her hopes up that their teacher at the time, Magneto, would save them.  
Time passed while the Ani-mator destroyed his small creations. Rahne remembered that Commander Hodge would soon call, and his evil face would appear on the video screen across from the caged mutants. He did. This had been the first time Rahne and her friends had seen Hodge. He called to make sure that his hired scientist was doing his job.  
"If the Right is to rid the world of mutants," Hodge said, "then we must learn to put a stop to their mutations altogether. You are working to discover how we might do that...?"   
"Certainly...certainly. Using the animal specimens the Right supplied me with." He was lying. He'd used them to create more mutations, the Ani-mates. Hodge reminded the Ani-mator of how he'd found him rotting in a jail for lying to his former employers and conducting unsupervised experiments. The Ani-mator claimed he was still grateful.  
"You've seen my results," he said.  
"On paper, scientist! We haven't had a chance to test them. Tough soon...scientist, why are you wearing that ridiculous outfit? And what's that on your head? You look like a mad hatter!"  
"A jest, sir...a simple...jest! A pleasure talking to you, Commander. I'll notify you when all has been secured! Until then, for your own safety, stay away!" The screen went black. The Ani-mator turned back to the New Mutants. "Mad Hatter, indeed! The ignorant lout! To wear an animal's trophy is to steal his fierceness!"  
Soon, the Ani-mator once again ranted. This time, it was about how his unauthorized experiments were meant to help humanity. He then commanded that Bird-Brain and the other traitorous Ani-mates be brought to the Maze and killed.  
"You can't!" Rahne cried.  
"Oh, can't I? I shall also destroy my laboratory and spirit you all away. But I will use you...or part of you to create a mutant/Ani-mate army! Your power would suit them well! Hee hee!"  
The Ani-mator ordered the mutants to be taken to his ship, and the Ani-mates obeyed. As they carried the tubes away, Dani looked to Doug. "Doug, I have an idea. Tell them that the Ani-mator won't leave them alive...that he's bored with them...like Bird-Brain...and he plans to drop them into the maze to die, too!"  
"He'll probably do it, too!" Doug said. He used the Ani-mates' language to tell them. They froze on the spot.  
"No!" one of them grunted. "No!"  
"Yeah, he really will!" Dani said, pointing to a big pit of fire in front of them, that Rahne suspected was the Maze. "See?"  
That got them. They all grunted things like, "Maze!" and "fall!" Then, one yelled "RUN!" They all took off, dropping the tubes that held the New Mutants, and shattering them.   
As Rahne and the others wiped the glass off, and Illyana got her breath back, the team was suddenly surrounded by Ani-mate reinforcements.  
"Where'd they all come from?" Sam asked  
"Crawled outta the woodwork," Doug said, casually.  
"Tough!" Dani exclaimed. "What've they got that we haven't got?  
As Rahne shifted to her werewolf form, Doug grabbed a big stick and said, "Fangs and claws, for starters. An' there must be fifty of 'em!"  
"I can almost feel my soul-sword in my hand," Illyana said to Dani, trying to fight off the evil urges inside her. "It wants to come to me from limbo, Dani, I feel it!"  
"Make it stay there, Illyana!" Dani called back, trying to fend off the attackers. "As long as it's in limbo, it's partly under your control. We can't chance it being too dangerous to teleport."  
Rahne remembered about Illyana's abilities. She was the queen of limbo, the demon world. Her soul sword was there, and it kept the demons in check. It was extremely powerful, but very dangerous to use.  
"Look..." Illyana said, "I'm 'porting back home to get Magneto. He helped me in limbo against demons. He'll make mincemeat of these guys." With that, Illyana teleported away. Rahne and the others continued fighting. Dani used her powers to try and scare the monsters, and Doug used anything he could find to throw. Sam and Rahne were the only to who could use their powers as brute strength.   
Soon, Illyana reappeared, along with a baseball bat she'd taken from the mansion. "He isn't at the school." She said, attacking an Ani-mate that had Doug in his grip.  
"It figures!" Dani said. "It's just like him to be somewhere else when we need him."  
Rahne kept biting and clawing at the Ani-mates, still realizing that things were going exactly as they had the last time. She had to be weary so she wouldn't forget about Doug. But she was getting caught up in the fighting.   
Rahne remembered that, about this time, the Ani-mator had tried to escape. She glanced over and saw Doug catch him, right on cue.  
"No!" the madman yelled. "Let me go!"  
"You're kidding, right?" Doug said, tackling him. "Why should I?"  
"The computer is on auto-destruct, you fool! It's set to blow! This island will be destroyed!"  
Rahne couldn't pay attention to them. She kept fighting. After Sam said something, Doug ran back to the computer in the lab. The rest kept fighting until the Animates finally folded. Rahne took the last one down just as Doug ran back in.  
"Sam! Sam! I did it!"  
"We won!" Dani said.  
Illyana took her bat and ran up on top of the largest of the fallen creatures.  
"See, Illyana," Dani said, "we didn't need your sword after all."  
"Or Magneto," Sam added.  
"Yeah, we did it!" Illyana cheered.  
"Never mind, Illyana," Rahne said. "He'll get back soon enough...and find out what we've done." She remembered how Magneto was the angry type. He'd been left to teach the New Mutants in Professor X's absence, and he'd grounded all of his students. They'd left to help Bird-Brain.  
"Omigosh, Bird-Brain!" Dani replied to something Doug had said. "I almost forgot! They took him off in the elevator. We better hurry!"  
"Be kinda fun," Sam said, following the group. "Especially havin' little animal kids crawlin' 'round the school."  
"Tell that to Magneto," Illyana said.  
Rahne had been lost in the gladness of the victory that she almost forgot it wasn't over yet.  
"Are we lucky or what?" Doug said, finding the elevator. "Here it is!"  
"Wait!" Rahne called. "Don't open that! Hodge is there!"  
"Hodge?" Doug asked, pressing the "up" button.  
The two metal doors slid open, and Rahne gasped as she saw Cameron Hodge standing there, along with his metal army. The soldiers were encased entirely in metal suits. Sinister smiley faces stared at the New Mutants, and the mechanical guns on their shoulders fell and aimed.  
"Ah, the New Mutants, I presume," Hodge said. "Commander Hodge, at your service." The smile faces opened fire, and everything went black.   
When Rahne came to her senses again, she found that she was moving. She turned her head and saw that she, along with Doug, was being carried over the shoulder of one of the smile-faced soldiers.   
My Lord, she thought, It's still going exactly the same...Hodge got us, and we're headed for the ship...where's Bird-Brain?   
"The scientist is secured," she head Hodge call from ahead of them. "Now get the mutants on board and prepare for take off!"  
"NO!" a strange voice screamed. Bird-Brain! "Fri-AWK-ends!" Bird-Brain flew down from the top of the cave they were leaving. He headed straight for the soldier that had Rahne and Doug, grabbing them and shoving the soldier into the lake with his powerful legs.   
"Good move, pal!" Doug said. Bird-Brain carried them away from the soldiers as his Ani-mate friends attacked. Rahne shifted to her half-wolf form.  
"Bird-Brain," Rahne said, "this time, please keep back and let us fight!"  
"No!" Bird-Brain replied. "Af-ARWK-fraid! Ran-SQUAWK-island! Now-SQUAAK-fight! All Fight!"  
"Get this, Rahne?" Doug said. "He says he's been a coward when he escaped and came to us. He says he can't run this time!"  
Rahne just nodded, then turned and ran into battle. She felt a knot in her stomach, and became increasingly nervous. This was the battle where Doug had died. She couldn't let that happen again.  
"Ani-mates, listen to me!" Doug called out. "Bite through the straps on Cannonball and Magik's helmets!" Rahne remembered that Hodge had put special helmets on Sam and Illyana that would stop them from using their powers to escape. The Ani-mates took care of those contraptions, and Cannonball and Magik were back in action. Sam fired himself at the soldiers, while Illyana opted to simply send them to the demon world through her teleports. Rahne jumped on soldier and tried to redirect his guns, then opted to bend them. They were tough and heavy, but the soldier couldn't get a good shot at her, so she had some time. But there were so many, and Rahne tried to remember how they'd beat them all last time.  
"Hey, Warlock, I think we found 'em!" Of course! Two of the New Mutants hadn't been with them. Sunspot and Warlock!  
"Warlock! Sunspot!" Doug cried happily. "Man oh man! Just the advantage we needed!"  
Warlock was a phalanx, a shape-shifting alien that looked (and talked) like a cartoon machine. He could take the properties and shape of pretty much any machine, and he used that power to pummel his enemies. Sunspot could change into a being of powerful energy. He was strong enough to rip the soldiers' armor apart. Rahne was so happy to see them again, she almost forgot she was fighting.  
"We thought you ran away!" Doug called from the sidelines. "What're you doing here?"  
"Explanation: Self has come to rescue self's much embattled dearfriendsNewMutants!" Warlock explained.  
"Yeah!" Sunspot called back. "It sure looks like somebody has to!"  
Rahne had to stop paying attention to their conversing. She got rid of one soldier and jumped on the next. She constantly glanced around to see how the others were doing, even though she knew they were winning.   
Finally, the moment came, and it hit Rahne like a shot. "Rahne!" Doug called. "He's got a gun!"  
There was the Ani-mator, free from the ship, and holding a pistol. "I will protect my investments!" he said. "If I can't have the wolf-girl, nobody will!"  
Rahne jumped from the soldier she was attacking. "Get back, Doug!" she called, diving straight for the Ani-mator. The madman fired into the air, but Rahne caught him square in the chest, tackling him down and prying the gun from his claw-like hands. She held it up and flung the Ani-mator aside. She turned, suddenly remembering the soldier behind her, but was relieved to see Bird-Brain taking care of him. Doug stood safely (but rigidly) behind a boulder.  
"I...I did it!" Rahne called, holding the gun in the air. "I did it! I finally did it!"  
"You mean we did it, don't ya, Rahne?" Sam asked from beside her.  
Rahne saw the soldiers retreating. "Oops," she blushed. "That's right, Sam! I'm sorry...WE did it!" Sam had thought that she'd been referring to winning the battle.  
Hodge fled to his ship. "Even mutant children are far to dangerous to be allowed to live," he said. "You, soldier! Follow me aboard the ship!" A few minutes later, they took off, but circled back.  
"Everyone, run for cover!" Rahne called. "They're going to bomb us!"  
Sam grabbed Rahne and took off, also catching Dani on his way. Warlock flew Sunspot up towards the plane, ready to stop it, but in vein. Just as the last time around, a mass of tentacles reached from the water and pulled the ship down. One of the Ani-mator's experiments.  
The Ani-mator was on top of Bird-Brain, trying to punish him for helping the New Mutants. Rahne remembered that the Ani-mator had done this the first time, but he had had a gun. "Creature! There were to be no strangers! Not a one! Not ever...on my island!" He was without a weapon, and Bird-Brain wasn't afraid of him. He kicked him in the face, knocking him out. Then, Bird-Brain picked up the Ani-mator's skull-crown and held it in the air.  
"Win-AWK!" he cried. "Win! Ani-mates free!"  
"Bird-Brain, I'm so happy for you!" Rahne called, running to him. "You won! We won! And...even Doug won!"  
"What was that supposed to mean?" Doug asked, coming up behind Rahne. She spun around and hugged him tight.  
"You're alive! Thank Goodness!"  
"Yeah, I'm alive!" Doug laughed. "Have you ever known me to die before?"  
"Oh, never mind, you big silly!" Rahne felt like a child again...and she was, in a way. Come on. Let's all just get out of here."  
"Sounds like a plan," Sunspot said, coming back down from the sky with Warlock.  
"Bird-Brain," Rahne turned to him. "Do you want to come back with us?" She knew his answer already.  
"AWK-no," he said. "Be-SQUAWK-long here. With-AWK-others. Goodbye, fri-....."  
Bird-Brain was cut off by...silence. Total silence. Rahne looked around, confused. No one moved...literally. Everyone and everything was frozen in place.  
"Wh...what's going on?" Rahne asked.   
"Greetings, Miss Sinclair," a voice said.  
Rahne spun around and found herself staring up at a man. A very large man. Larger than any human Rahne had ever seen. Then again, he obviously wasn't human. He wore some type of blue costume, complete with a cape. His head was grotesquely larger than his body, and he had no pupils or hair.   
"Who...who are you?" Rahne asked.  
"I am known as the Watcher." The being said. "My job is to watch over the planet you call Earth, to see study it, but not to intervene myself in it's matters. I have once again broken one of my own laws. The encounter that you have just experienced...was it not something you have experienced before?"  
"No...I mean yes," Rahne said. "Um...I mean that I have been there before...in the same situation...with the same people...but..."  
"Not with the same results?"  
"No...not at all."  
"That was my purpose. I have watched over your planet for centuries upon centuries. I viewed your struggle on Paradise Island many years ago. I saw how you fought the oppression there, and how you lost one who was close to your heart."  
"Yes...Doug,"  
"Doug," the Watcher repeated. "Doug was murdered in an act to save your life. For many years, I observed the Earth, and I often found that you placed the blame for his death upon your own head."  
"If I hadn't been in that situation, he wouldn't have died!"  
"But it was not your fault you were in that particular predicament. I have come to help you, so that I may teach a lesson of human life that so many others have learned. I gave you the chance to stop the assassination of the one you call Doug. You have succeeded. But in succeeding, you may have done more harm than you would have thought."  
"Harm?" Rahne asked, looking back at the frozen scene, then turning again to face the Watcher. "But Doug's alive! What's the harm of his life being spared?"  
"Look," the Watcher said, pointing past Rahne's head, "and you shall see."  
Rahne turned around again, but this time saw a different view. People and things were in motion again, but in a different environment. Rahne saw another battle. The New Mutants were fighting evil mutants. Rahne thought she recognized the evil mutants.  
"As time passed, Miss Sinclair, "the Watcher said, "you and your friends would encounter many more battles, as you may expect. Your mutant powers would enable you to combat the oppression of your own world, and others. But the powers given to your friend, Doug, still would not enable him to compete in combat." The Watcher pointed toward Doug, hiding away from the battle, with a sad look on his face.  
"Doug would feel increasingly useless to the group, but wouldn't put it into words for the others to hear. Finally, he would tolerate his useless powers no longer, and would make a deal with the Devil."  
The scene changed to the front of the Hellfire Club's old base. It changed again, and Rahne could see the commotion inside. Doug was there, and he was speaking to a member of the club. The member seemed sinisterly happy, and he led Doug through the building. They went into a room.  
"Doug would go to the enemies of the New Mutants, the Hellfire Club. In his quest for more useful powers in which to benefit the New Mutants, he would allow the Hellfire Club to experiment on him with strange machines and chemicals. The New Mutants wouldn't know about this until it was too late. Doug would be given amazing abilities, ones that he didn't get from birth. He would use these powers to help the New Mutants cause."  
Another scene of a battle, this time with Doug brutally destroying the villains. Rahne was surprised.   
The Watcher continued, "Soon, though, Doug would find that his powers were far superior to the ones his friends had. He would become greedy, wanting to fight, wanting to show his abilities. Eventually, he would leave the New Mutants to join the Hellions."  
Rahne now saw a shocking scene where Doug was among the ranks of another group of the New Mutants' enemies. He had such an evil look in his eyes. "No," Rahne said. "No, Doug wouldn't do that! Doug wouldn't betray his friends!"  
"Power can corrupt even the most innocent minds, child," the Watcher said. "But the Hellions would soon be to weak for Doug's standards. He would soon become a solo artist, and eventually, he would be driven mad by his power lust. The Hellfire Club would laugh, knowing that the loss of Doug would be a deadly blow to the New Mutants. Doug would become a villain almost as powerful as your other enemy, Apocalypse. But all villains fall, and the Avengers, with the help of the X-Men would bring down Doug. Douglas Ramsey would bring countless deaths, and it would all be because he did not save your life on Paradise Island against the Ani-mator."  
Rahne was speechless. How could Doug become so cruel? How did the Watcher know this? "How do you know all of this," Rahne asked, still staring at an image of a fallen Douglas Ramsey.  
"Though I am the Watcher of your world, I am also the Watcher of countless other worlds that were not to have been. I have brought you back in time so that you may see the creation of one of these worlds. You now have the knowledge of how Douglas Ramsey would ultimately become an evil entity, had he not been heroic years ago. Now, I must leave you."  
"Wait!" Rahne called, but the Watcher began fading.  
"Never forget, Rahne Sinclair," he said, "your choices decide your fate. Do not dwell on the mistakes of the past, for they will only hinder your future."  
As the Watcher faded, everything went dark. Rahne felt as if she was falling.   
She hit the ground with small impact. Rahne sat up and found herself on the floor of her bedroom, still in Scotland, still in the residence of Moira McTaggart. Rahne put her hand up to her head. She stood and looked in the mirror across the room. She was older again. Her hair was long and her face was more mature. She was her normal self again. Had all of that been a dream? Or was an alien being truly trying to show her a lesson of life? She'd seen some strange things in her day, and Rahne decided that this had been both a dream...and a message. She picked up a photograph of the New Mutants she'd kept. There was Doug, smiling back from the past, his arm around Dani's shoulder. Rahne smiled. She kissed the picture.   
"G'bye, Doug," she said, once again speaking in her Scottish accent. "May ye're soul rest as easy as mine."  



End file.
